Five Trends from the SAG Awards Red Carpet that I'm Stealing for My Wardrobe

I don't know about the rest of you, but the only reason I bother to pay any attention to awards season is the red carpet. I don't even turn on the TV; I just sit at my computer and click through endless slideshows of the night's dresses in hopes that some of them will be interesting and a few might even veer towards insanity.

What I hate the most is a red carpet full of safely pretty but bland dresses. I have nothing against a sleek black mermaid gown; it's just that it's not going to give me much inspiration for my daily wardrobe. You might not think that you can get a lot of style ideas from a red carpet if you're on a normal person's budget, with a normal person's life — but I definitely do.

Hell, I don't even leave the house some days ('sup fellow freelancers?) and I'm still excited to take some of the trends from Saturday's SAG Awards red carpet and apply them to my spring shopping (I promise, spring will be here before we know it.) Here are the five standout trends from the 2016 SAG Awards, plus a few ideas for how to implement them into your daily wardrobe.

Cut-Outs

I've never been a huge fan of cut-outs, but if Saturday's red carpet is any indication, cut-outs aren't going away anytime soon so we all better hop on board. Several ladies wore dresses with cut-outs: some discreet, some that made the dress look like several pieces of fabric tied together.

Personally, I prefer my cut-outs to be confined to one area of the dress to avoid the "someone just attacked me with scissors" look. Below are three totally wearable dresses featuring cut-outs:

The only thing I ask is that we collectively agree to avoid shoulder cut-outs. I don't understand them and I don't want to understand them.

I love how this trend shows some skin, but does so in a very romantic way. It's sexy in a demure, "Oops, my sleeve just slipped off my shoulder," kind of way. I live for that crap.

I extra-adore the bell sleeves of the third top, and I have to admit that while white lace dress reads very bridal (although I'm not mad at it), there's also a blue version if you're not into that or if you plan on wearing this dress to someone else's wedding.

Patterned Sequins

Listen, I love a good sequined dress as much as the next girl, but I have to admit that they can get a little stale. Let's be honest — most of them just rest on the fact that they're shiny and sparkly and leave it at that, in terms of visual interest. So I was stoked to see so many non-basic sequined dresses on the red carpet.

Queen Latifah, Nicole Kidman, Uzo Aduba, and Hannah Bagshawe (Eddie Redmayne's wife) all wore dresses that featured sequins in fun patterns. The showstopper, however, was Alicia Vikander's Louis Vuitton dress. That was, hands-down, my favorite dress on the red carpet and possibly of this entire awards season so far.

Here are a few other non-basic sequined items:

You've got your graphic pattern on the left, your floral pattern on the right, and in the middle... some kind of swirly (?) pattern. I think "swirly" is the technical term for it.

The important thing is to remember, no matter which pattern you pick, make sure it sparkles! There is no longer an excuse to wear boring sequins now that Alicia Vikander has thrown down the gauntlet.

One color that really stuck out to me on the SAG Awards red carpet was bright yellow. I love it when celebrities wear bright yellow on the red carpet; two of my all-time favorite red carpet looks were Michelle Williams and Emma Stone in yellow dresses.

At this year's SAG Awards, Lily Rabe, Hannah Murray, and Sola Bamis all wore dresses in this bold, eye-catching hue. Don't be afraid to insert some attention-grabbing yellow into your wardrobe. It always works in the spring and summer, but I especially love it in the winter because it really stands out in a sea of neutrals and literally makes everyone's day brighter.

Here are a few bright yellow pieces that I'm obsessed with:

I have too many swimsuits, but I'm dying to get my hands on that ASOS one piece. It'll go great with a summer tan (don't worry, I use self-tanner).

If a yellow dress is too much all-over color for you, consider starting slow with a mod skirt like this one from Zara. And finally, I am a huge advocate of bright yellow winter coats, but this gorgeous J. Crew coat is a good option if you want just a sneaky hint of color.

Bows

Finally, I noticed a lot of women sporting bows. Now, I am not usually a bow person (whatever that means), especially when it comes to giant bows like the ones worn by Christina Hendricks and Sola Bamis (see below).

However, I can get behind the idea of wearing a smaller bow on the back of a dress the way that Stephanie Drake did.

It's a really easy way to add a fun, feminine detail to an otherwise simple dress. Out of the three dresses below, the hot pink one is probably a bit two twee for my personal taste, but I know there's someone out there who would look amazing in it. I'd really like the denim pinafore for my closet because you can wear it year-round with the help of layers, and the little bow is a nice touch to balance out the toughness of faded black denim.

This gives me hope that one day bedroom slippers will be appropriate footwear no matter what the occasion — even at an awards show. Maybe you have to be Carol Burnett to pull it off, I don't know, but I'm willing to find out.

What red carpet looks from this year's SAG awards were your absolute favorites? Will you be wearing "swirly" sequins this Spring? Tell me all about it in the comments.